Cooling unit

Abstract

A cooling unit comprising a coolant fluid pathway in which there is (a) a centrifugal pump which serves to pump coolant fluid along the pathway when the unit is in use, and (b) a heat exchanger which serves to cool the coolant fluid which is thus pumped along the pathway. The pump has a rotor constituted by a magnetically contactlessly driven impeller which is provided with at last one magnet and which is enclosed within a housing, and stator outside the housing and provided with at least one electromagnet operable to act on the said at least one magnet to rotate the impeller.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A combination of a cooling unit and a supercomputer connected to the cooling unit to be cooled thereby, the supercomputer having heat sinks of semiconductor chips in a coolant fluid circuit of the supercomputer, which heat sinks have fine ridging or microfins or microchannels, the cooling unit comprising a coolant fluid pathway in which there is (a) a centrifugal pump which serves to pump coolant fluid along the pathway when the unit is in use, and (b) a heat exchanger which serves to cool the coolant fluid which is thus pumped along the pathway, the cooling unit being connected in the said coolant fluid circuit of the supercomputer, in which the pump has a rotor constituted by a magnetically driven circular impeller which is provided with at last one magnet and which is enclosed within a housing having a circular interior within which fits the magnetically driven circular impeller, and a stator outside the housing and provided with at least one electromagnet operable to act on the said at least one magnet to rotate the impeller, wherein the housing is an inert plastics housing and the circular impeller is an inert plastics circular impeller within which the said at least one magnet is encapsulated whereby the impeller is magnetically contactlessly driven and is magnetically levitated so that it is not in contact with any of the walls of the housing and when it rotates it does so contactlessly. 
     
     
       2. The combination according to  claim 1 , wherein the unit is connected for use with coolant within the coolant pathway, the coolant fluid comprising water. 
     
     
       3. The combination according to  claim 2 , wherein the coolant comprises water with a bactericide. 
     
     
       4. The combination according to  claim 2 , wherein the coolant comprises water with glycol. 
     
     
       5. The combination according to  claim 1 , wherein the unit further comprises a filter in the coolant fluid pathway to filter the coolant fluid. 
     
     
       6. The combination according to  claim 5 , wherein the filter comprises a mesh through which the coolant fluid flows when the unit is in use. 
     
     
       7. The combination according to  claim 6 , wherein the filter further comprises a cylindrical perforated wall surrounded by the mesh. 
     
     
       8. The combination according to  claim 6 , wherein the hole size of the mesh is from 20 to 100 microns in diameter. 
     
     
       9. The combination according to  claim 7 , wherein the hole size of the mesh is substantially 50 microns. 
     
     
       10. The combination according to  claim 5 , wherein the filter is attached to the pump. 
     
     
       11. The combination according to  claim 5 , wherein the filter is so attached to the pump that the inlet to the pump is in fluid communication with the interior of such a cylinder of the filter. 
     
     
       12. A method of operating a supercomputer using the combination of the cooling unit and the supercomputer according to  claim 1 .